Big data reveals risk exposure of UK business to Greek crisis

How many UK companies are at potential risk if Greece goes bust? According to big data crunched by Rosslyn Analytics (a provider of cloud-based data tech), 70 British companies are Greek owned and therefore could be in trouble depending on how the current Eurozone crisis unfolds.

According to Rosslyn's data, the UK is the eighth most at-risk country in the world when it comes to business exposure to the Greek crisis.

Turkey is the most exposed nation with 415 Greek owned local companies, followed by Serbia on 273, Bulgaria on 216, and Romania on 135.

The US is in fifth place on 112, followed by Cyprus on 78, the Russian Federation with 74 – then ourselves on 70 – with Italy on 48, and Poland on 40 rounding out the top 10 at-risk list.

Rosslyn's data scientists used the company's Rapid Big Data Cloud Analytics Platform, which boasts large reservoirs of interconnected business data, to arrive at these results.

The firm also looked at total turnover of all these businesses, and in this picture, Cyprus is most exposed with a total declared turnover of almost $7.8 billion (around £5 billion). The UK's turnover exposure is $730 million (£475 million).

Hugh Cox, Chief Data Officer, Rosslyn Analytics, commented: “The Greek crisis is a wake-up call for globally-minded business leaders. Most businesses have very little insight into who their suppliers and partners really are. These 70 British businesses could at best have financial repercussions or at worst go bust at any moment, and chances are, most of the companies that rely on their products or services have no idea of this risk, because they don’t know that they are Greek-owned.

“And this is just the beginning. With China’s economy slowing and other European markets set to suffer from the Eurozone crisis, companies need to have more visibility of suppliers, customers and partners – based in the UK as well as abroad – to truly understand the impact of global economic situations on their business, and mitigate financial risks.”